In the case of Vendyl Jones, he plans to uncover the lost Ark of the Covenant by Tisha b`Av. It was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jews at Mt. Sinai and supposedly hidden just before the First Temple was destroyed. Although the Talmud says the Ark is hidden under the Temple Mount, Jones believes the tunnel continues 18 miles to the south and is now in the Judean Desert. Jones is not Jewish, although his daughter Sarah has converted and lives in Samaria (Shomron). However, he is learned in Torah and Talmud and has contact with a mysterious kabbalist who has now given him his blessing to reveal the Ark by Tisha B`Av (August 14th), the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Temples.

But Jones is not alone in his search. Barry Roffman, an Orthodox Jew and a Lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard and author of Ark Code, (www.amazon.com ) believes that the Torah codes he has discovered can unlock the secret of the Ark`s location, and his findings are very different from those of Vendyl Jones. According to Roffman, there are maps encoded in the Torah. Key site names are encoded in such a way that the angles between Jerusalem, Arabic sites and a suspect Egyptian Ark site correspond to actual course headings on real world maps. The site, which he describes as 31 degrees 9 minutes North, 33 degrees 4 minutes East, is where a cloud of fire blocked the Egyptian army from the Israelites before we crossed the Sea of Reeds (Yam Suf) at Lake Bardawil in Northern Sinai, Egypt. He cites Jeremiah as the last prophet to control the Ark before finishing his life in that area of Egypt. Roffman`s research is unique, quite different from methods used by other Bible code researchers. It is rooted in his expertise as a Coast Guard military planner. He has explanations as to why Jeremiah took the Ark to the site of the splitting of the sea, and believes that the Ark`s purpose is to prevent a nuclear war between Israel and its enemies.

Barry Roffman was born in 1947 in Philadelphia and now lives in California with his second wife, Katherine Kim Roffman and their young son David. He has a distinguished Navy background, and was also a high school teacher of earth science, biology, chemistry and physical science. In 1989, his book, A Matter of Spiritual Custody, dealt with an interfaith child custody battle in which the Catholic Church, possibly for the first and only time, annulled his older son`s baptism on a ruling by Edward A. McCarthy, Archbishop of Miami, on the grounds that it was carried out without the father`s knowledge or consent when the boy was seven and considered himself to be Jewish. Today, that son, Robert Altair Roffman, is an Orthodox Rabbi in the U.S. Air Force.

Quote:? You can't "annul" a Baptism! LOL

So now, the world is waiting with bated breath. Will it be Jones or Roffman who finds the Ark of the Covenant? Will it be found in Israel or in Egypt? Will it be discovered by means of ground-penetrating radar?

What will be the religious, political and scientific implications and ramifications if it is found? And what else can we learn of the future from the words encrypted in the Bible codes or the secrets of the Talmud? We may not have long to wait. The Nobel Laureate physicist, Richard Feynman, put it this way:

"To solve any problem that has never been solved before, you have to leave the door to the unknown, ajar."

Dvora Waysman is a writer living in Jerusalem. She is the author of nine books, including Woman of Jerusalem; Esther and newly-released in paperback in English and Hebrew by Chaim Mazo Publishers The Pomegranate Pendant. She can be reached at [url=mailto:ways@netvision.net.il]ways@netvision.net.il or website: www.dvorawaysman.com

Quote:Roffman is basing his search on the Bible Code ... a code encrypted in the Bible some 3,000 years ago, now unlocked by computer. The mathematician who discovered the code was Dr. Eliyahu Rips, one of the world`s leading experts in group theory, the field that underlies quantum physics. Jones is basing his research on the Talmud.

I have heard from an SSPX priest, that the Bible code will have an important role in the conversion of a significant numbers out of the House of Jacob (Jews) in the coming End Battle.

Quote:Once a Christian pastor, he left his post to become a leader of the Noahide movement, Gentiles who observe the seven laws of Noah. His search is aided by an ancient document found in Qumran together with the Dead Sea Scrolls, known as the "Copper Scroll."

How sad, that the scrolls of Qumran added to his apostasy! A great expert of them, who in fact discovered them, but was made abuse of by American scientists, was the traditionalist Roman Catholic professor and priest Father Prof. Dr. J.P.M. Van der Ploeg O.P. (Netherlands), a former rector of the "Catholic" University of Nijmegen (at his time still Catholic), who died July 2004. He was very convinced of the proof these scrolls gave to Christianity and that this Essenic information was crucial for a better understanding of the time of Our Lord and the deep apostasy within the Jewish people at that point already (most of the few Essenes were those who had remained faithful and rejected hellenism and idols in the Temple). But of course those faithful Jews of the Essenes joined the New Testament and did not remain in rabbinist Judaism.

Quote: "Jones' plan is simple. It is to drill a borehole into the chamber containing the Ark, drop a pin-camera in and reveal the historic treasure to a watching world. If Jones is right, many predict this event will turn the world upside down. Jones says this will bring an end to the government's plan to uproot Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria. It also will bring the very idea of any Palestinian state to a screeching halt. In fact, Jones predicts quite the opposite will occur. With the discovery of the Ark, the Jewish people will have the greatest motivation of all time to return to Israel from around the world and rebuild the Temple to house this holy treasure."
[url=http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44495

Armed with this and other blessings, Jones is now excited to uncover his life's pursuit. He believes the ark will be discovered by Tisha B'Av (Aug. 14), a day of repeated tragedy in Jewish history. Most notably, it is the anniversary of the destruction of both the First and Second Holy Temples.

Since returning from Israel, Vendyl has answered many letters and phone calls, asking about this date. He has also addressed this in his various classes via PalTalk. We were not initially aware how widespread this statement has become, quoted in many newspapers throughout the Jewish world. Of course it has caused a lot of excitement. However, Vendyl was slightly, but significantly, misquoted. What he actually said was that it would be very appropriate IF he could discover the Ark by Tisha B’Av. At this time it is obviously not going to happen. However, as soon as the funding permits, he will be in Israel to drill the bore hole and proceed with the dig to uncover the Tabernacle and the Ark. We are hoping that this will be in September.Link